VISIT TO ENGLAND 
157 
so he asked what it was. “ Don’t you know that? ” 
answered Dillenius. “ Yes, if I may take a flower, I 
will say at once.” “ Take it,” said Dillenius, and the 
answer was at once forthcoming. As no improvement 
in his entertainment showed itself, and Linnaeus’s 
travelling expenses beginning to dry up, he determined 
to betake himself homeward. As he was unversed in 
the English language, he asked Dillenius to let his 
servant order a carriage for the following day, wishing 
to pay for it in his presence. “ I could then no longer 
put up with it,” said Linnaeus, “ but desired as the 
only favour from him, to explain why he thought I 
was bringing botany into confusion.” Dillenius 
refused, but when Linnaeus became pertinacious 
and continued, “ Why was he now so angry with me 
when formerly he was polite ? ” “ Step in with me,” 
he cried suddenly, and took up the first printed sheets 
of Linnaeus’s “ Genera ” which Gronovius, in his 
innocence, had forwarded to him. On almost every 
page N.B. (nota bene ) had been written, and on 
Linnaeus asking why, the answer came, “ Yes, in your 
book there are many erroneous genera like N.B.” 
Linnaeus disputed this, but declared that if the 
opposite were shown, he would gladly correct it. 
Instead of arguing, they began to examine the 
flowers and by dissection to judge which was right; 
finally coming to a perfect agreement when Linnaeus’s 
statements were found to accord with nature, though 
not with the old writers. As a consequence Dillenius 
admitted that “ Genera plantarum ” was not written in 
order to oppose him, the result being that Linnaeus 
had to leave his travelling companion, and remain for 
a whole month. From that time forward they were 
hardly apart for two hours while Linnaeus was at 
Oxford, and when he at last left that city, Dillenius 
embraced him and parted from him with tears, having 
before that invited him to live and die there, as the 
professorial salary was sufficient for both. On part¬ 
ing, he presented him with a copy of his “ Hortus 
